Saturday, January 17, 2009

Jan 18th at 2:14 am: Sick but happy!

Today was a really really really long day, but I'm winding today down by putting some thoughts down and listening to some Buble!

And in this crazyAnd through these crazy timesIt's you! It's you! You make me sing

such a good song

Anyway

Last night, I met up with most of the Stanford kids at the Wienerei called Fra Rosa, chugged 3 glasses of wine because they were closing in half an hour, then went in search of a good dance club. Amie, Tommy, Asmita, and I ventured forth first to Dante Club at Hackescher Markt U-Bahn station, but Amie refused to dance to techno. So after getting very expensive Yeigerbombs at the Irish pub next door, we headed over to Club Soda at Eberswalder Strasse. We had been forewarned that the club usually has a very young crowd, but I really really liked it. I loved how there were multiple dance floors. I loved the crowd that was there and the music (although I didn't get to dance to Lady Gaga even once). I even saw some b-boys break it down on the dance floor to JT! At that moment I wished that Christophe were there with me. What stories I will have to relate to him! The experience was pretty cool, but I could not feel completely comfortable with the group I was with. Amie was a pretty damp blanket the entire night, getting on Tommy's and Asmita's nerves. Even worse, Tommy was being too forward the entire night. Ah how I wished multiple times I were with Helen and Tina or Mr. Colin.

After destressing by dancing for a couple of hours, the wet blanket spoke up again and wanted to go home. So the clubbing scene in Berlin starts around 1 and goes until (sometimes) noon, but we left at 4! haha i guess it is still kind of late isn't it. Amie and I took the U-bahn to the S-bahn, and ended up getting stranded at Tiergarten b/c Zoologischer Garten was on fire!! Because of that stupid fire, I spent over 2 hours getting home.

Then today I got up at 10:30 to get to Wannsee station for our fieldtrip to Potsdam. We were about an hour late setting out from Berlin b/c we waited for stragglers, but the wait was well worth it. Potsdam is beautiful. It makes me sad that I will not be here in the spring. We saw the major Schloss, got a tour of the inside, and walked around the gardens. The view from the castle was breathtaking. Oh. And I saw my first windmill.I was so excited I yelled, and everyone infront of me, including Knut our field trip teacher, turned around in surprise. I was immediately reminded of Don Quixote and yummy Danish cookies when I saw the windmill. haha I cannot wait to see some more in Copenhagen!!!! (Some of us will be heading there in March) Not only did I see my first windmill, I stepped on ice-covered water for the first time! Berlin is filled with so many firsts. I wish I could say it was a frozen over lake that I put my feet on, but it was a fountain. Still, it was cool, i promise.

After hanging out at the grounds, we were dismissed. Knut (whom we thought to be gay) headed off to his 3 year old daughter's wedding hahaha, and we headed to the Danish part of town. Ah it's so quaint. I love how everywhere I go in Berlin and in Potsdam is so pretty. They're cities where all the streets look like Palo Alto's University Avenue. I love it. We walked around in a big, clunky, awkward group of Stanford students before groups inevitably split apart and did separate things. I will go into the factions in further detail in a little bit, but anyhoo, my group decided to get Knut Recommended Hot Chocolate! It was so good. I got the hot chocolate with "creme" on top, and it definitely warmed me up after trouncing around in the snow all day. We stepped out of the cafe to our first rain in Germany (god i hate cold rain), and we waited for the bus to the S-bahn station. On the way, we made a wrong stop at a mall (movie tickets were only 7.50 euro! i thought they would be more expensive) but eventually made it home.

Nothing feels like getting back to a house after a very long and tiring day. I made myself dinner with roquefort cheese, prosciutto, yummy dark, walnut bread, figs, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I'm sure it tasted awesome, but I could not taste or smell any of it!! Dammit I don't care that I have a fever, but dammit it sucks that I cannot enjoy my food. Not being able to smell roquefort of all things? When Dogma (my host mom) got back from her Sufi lecture (she's Muslim!!), she saw that I was sick and immediately employed a combination of German and her mystic-herbally treatments to help me. She made a pot of boiling water with some sort of tea, made me sit over the pot, and covered my head with a towel. I sat there, probably looking incredibly foolish, for a really long time, and when I was done, she was ready with a pills called "karin," a glass of iron dissolved in water, and a spoonful of delicious honey. i have no idea what kind of honey it was, but it was so good. it's not the kind that we usually eat in the united states. this spoonful of honey was pale yellow, not viscous, and slightly grainy. OH it made my day so much better.

now here i am! i'm sorry if my writing is grammatically incorrect and even more sappy and affected than usual. i just finished reading mister daddy long legs by jean webster (dogma lent it to me), and i love the way the progonist, judy, writes. i wish i also had a person to write witty letters to. i think i would be too busy to keep it up though.

well tomorrow, i go over to amie's at 6 b/c she wants me to be at the party her host mom is throwing. to make it less awkward for her i guess. fine with me! her host mom is SO interesting. flaming red hair, horn rimmed, black glasses with polka dots on it, and really really big. not fat, just big! i love it. i went over to amie's one day to make some dinner with her, and her host mom had a guy friend over, and they were wining and dining under candlelight in the dining room! we felt so bad to ruin the mood for them. the host mom was really nice and offered us blintzs that her mom had made! omg so good. we tried them with cheese, with lox, with tomatoes, and combinations of all 3. yum. i really need to stop liking food so much. i shall post an entry soon about all the amazing food i have tried so far! speaking of which, i talked to dogma today about marzipan again! she gave me a brochure and a card for THE best marzipan in berlin. so GOOD marzipan should be mostly almonds, just a few bitter almonds, and a little bit of powdered suger. marzipan should not be those incredibly sweet nothings that people usually buy (although i do like those too). as soon as i am well and am able to enjoy food again, i WILL go buy hundreds of euros worth of this almondy goodness. i cannot wait, but until then, i think i will go on a diet. i cannot enjoy food now anyway, they all just taste like textures in my mouth when i eat. i really can only taste salty, sweet, bitter, and umami right now. it really is weird.